In the three-district, 48 village area where the Just Like My Child Foundation works, school structures are dilapidated, lacking basic necessities and girls are often not given the opportunity to attend school. The Just Like My Child Foundation is currently sponsoring the building, staffing, and development of its first school: the Children's Academy of the Global Heart, an initiative born of an American child's Bar Mitzvah project. In preparing for his Bar Mitzvah, Beau Bessler was told by his Rabbi that for the first 13 years, the world takes care of the boy. At 13, when the boy becomes a man, it's his job to help take care of the world. We are ready to join Beau in taking care of the world!

The village of Katikamu, where our first school will be built, has over 3,000 residents. The school will be able to educate 750 to 1,000 children over a five-year period. Children who do attend school right now do not have any school books, pens, or paper, and must sit on the dirt outside during their lessons. The schoolhouse structure will have seven classrooms, and seven qualified teachers will be hired to begin the process of formal education in Katikamu.

But the Just Like My Child Foundation is not just simply building a school; we are building an entire education system with full co-investment and cooperation from the community to uplift the community and create a sustainable model that will continue long after we've gone.

We believe that children have the ability to realize their greatest potential in a safe academic environment that integrates proper healthcare and disease prevention.

Katikamu is a community very close to the Bishop Asili hospital that was in desperate need of a school. Nearly 2,000 children will be impacted by the construction of a school here. The great news is that the land is ready, free and clear. The community is charged up, organized and already making bricks!

There are solid blue prints, budgets and timelines in place and the community has a clear plan and schedule for the construction of the school. All community members signed Project Convenant, a document outlining the expected contributions of the community and of the Just Like My Child Foundation throughout the life of the project; as well as demonstrating all parties commitment to the project.

Project Covenant

As per the guidelines of Project Covenant, the community has elected six men and six women to be the members of their Project Support Committee. The community appointed some of the elected members with special positions in the project, as suggested by Project Covenant, such as Community Mobilizer- whose job it will be to ensure all members who are signed up to work are motivated and attend their scheduled days.

Land Leveling

The leveling of the land where the school is to be built will affect community members who have been growing food on the land. Katikamu went as a whole community to the land to discuss the issue and to make decisions about exactly what parts of the land will be leveled for the school. The whole community is so excited about the project that they were willing to work together to share parts of their personal unused land to those community members that will lose their gardens during the leveling and building process.

Brick Making

The community will use interlocking brick presses to make bricks for construction of the school. These bricks don't require as much cement in the building process and are better for the environment because they don't require any burning of firewood for drying. Just Like My Child Foundation has agreed to assist by purchasing two interlocking brick presses for Bishop Asili Hospital. Bishop Asili will allow the Katikamu community to borrow the presses to make bricks for the building project, and JLMC will provide the necessary cement needed for the process. When the community learned that the foundation was giving them an opportunity to make interlocking bricks for the school building project they were absolutely ecstatic! They are excited to learn the skill of making these bricks as well as the process of building in a new way.

Gathering Stones

Community members contribute to the building project with the collection of hard core, sand and stones for use as building material. Women, men, teenagers and children have already worked many hours to collect stones- laughing, talking and singing the whole way through. All members of the Project Support Committee were on site the first day of collection. The Community Mobilizer moved around after the work was complete and wrote down the names of all community members present. He asked the children the names of their parents. This will help later on when children are recruited for the school. Those parents involved in building the school are invested in the project and will wish for their child to attend the new primary school once it’s built. At the end of their first day of gathering stones, Katikamu community members agreed to meet again the next day at the same time to get more work done. This community is willing to do what it takes to ensure that their children are getting a chance to make their dreams come true!!